So this is it, my last blog. The past week has been the most amazing week of my life, and that's the truth. Although I miss my home and family, I don't want to leave, I want to stay here and continue to have the best time of my life.

We have done such interesting things that I never would have imagined I would do, like seeing polar bears, meeting really interesting people and having them give us wonderful presentations, going on a helicopter trip and going inside a real polar bear den, seeing the northern lights and just being a part of Polar Bears International.

We have learned so many new skills and so many valuable lessons that will help us throughout life. I am so thankful to everyone who came and talked to us and went out of their way to come and see us. I am especially thankful to Robert and Carol Buchanan as they have done so much for us.

The people that I've met here are some of the most fabulous people I have ever met and I hope that I see them all again one day but for now, I'm going back to Australia.

Amy.

Lindsay Pierce
Amy Sutton

“The Canary in the Coal Mine”

We slaved away throughout the night,
Recruiting more people to join our fight,
Against the melting of the ice,
A warming earth will not suffice.

Last night we cried and shed our sorrow,
We learned so much about tomorrow.
The future, we learned, is in our hands,
To spread the word across the lands.

When we get nervous for presentations,
We make the “butterflies fly in formations.”
Our stomachs can be put to ease,
Knowing our words will come out like a breeze.

Arctic Ambassadors are the best,
We speak through our heart when put to the test.
The blue coats represent our honor and pride,
We stand up for polar bears, soon to have died.

We saw the mother and cubs today,
And people watched closely with nothing to say.
Although we have seen them in three separate trips,
These bears give us chills, and tremble our lips.

They gracefully stride across the plains,
The blood begins rushing through our veins.
These creatures have a claim to make,
That we take action against our mistakes.

Goodnight,
Amy and Lindsay

Last night, I stepped out on to the deck of the tundra lodge, not in very warm clothes… but that didn’t matter, because as I looked up towards the sky, I saw a train of green swirling around in the sky. This was one of the most fantastic things that I had ever seen in my life. Not too long after that, I was called over to the other side of the deck. The moment I turned around, I saw a deep purple colour that flowed into green, slithering like a snake across the sky of the arctic tundra.

What I saw last night, made me cry. That is how beautiful it was. You really have to see it to believe it. It’s something you could stare at for hours and feel like no time has passed, and as the sky is even clearer tonight, I hope to see some more colours.

The northern lights, however, were not the only great thing that night, as my fellow arctic ambassadors surrounded me. We called it ‘The Deck Party’ and in consisted of ‘ooh’ing and ‘ahh’ing at the lights in the sky, educating the ‘non-Aussies’ on ‘the vegemite song’, taking pictures and having the flash almost blind us, snuggling up to each other to keep warm and rapping to Eminem. It was a night that I will never forget and my highlight so far of this trip.

The only thing that would have made it better is if we saw a polar bear that night. Fortunately, in the morning, while on our daily tundra buggy trip, we saw a bear… then a cub… and then another cub. We think that it was the same bears at yesterday but today, they were more active and we got some pretty good footage and photos of them in the water which we are told is quite rare.

We hope to see some more northern lights tonight and find some more bears tomorrow. The sunsets here are amazing, especially reflecting off the water. I am especially looking forward to our helicopter trip on Tuesday and hopefully tomorrow I can report some more amazing things (if that’s possible) but farewell for now.

Last night at about ten, I looked out my window just to check if there was anything interesting to see before I went to sleep. I looked out and saw moving light in the sky; that got me up. Quickly, I put my jacket on and went outside. My flannelette pyjama pants weren’t the warmest thing and my toes were cold because I wasn’t wearing socks, but as I looked up, none of that mattered because I was looking at the northern lights; also known as Arora Borealis. It wasn’t as clear as I’ve seen pictures of and looked a bit like swirling clouds, however, it was still spectacular. We hope to see some more tonight as the sky is a bit clearer.

When the lights went away, we returned to our bunks and I drifted off to sleep. Not too long after that though, I woke up because someone’s phone alarm went off. I looked out my window again and saw, what I thought was a polar bear. “Oh my god - It’s a polar bear guys - Come look at this”, I said. Then, there were a few people dragging themselves out of their beds and making their way over to mine. I looked again… a little closer to discover that it was just a rock. “Oh, no wait, it’s just a rock”. Sorry to disappoint you guys! It was a white rock, mind you.

However, this morning, following a nice breakfast; we made out way on to the tundra in buggy 16 and saw our first real polar bear - and not just that but, it was a mother with two cubs! We took pictures and moved closer to the bears to take even better pictures. We got a radio call letting us know that lunch would soon be ready and as we looked at our watches, we were all taken by surprise. We had been taking pictures for about three hours, but it seemed like less than half of that!

In our free time, the ambassadors decided to play some games. One of them includes making ninja noises and the other, an Australian drama game that apparently requires too much coordination. The obsession with Vegemite continues and a few more people have tried it today. Lindsay said that it tastes like vinegar on toast. I was also kind enough to give some people a concert of ‘The Vegemite Song’.

Later on, we got given some presentation tasks that will be performed over the next few days, had a talk about public speaking which was really helpful and are now heading in for dinner. So goodbye from a very hungry Amy.

This morning we all woke up during the wee hours to all of our belongings and left our comfortable hotel beds to depart at 5am for our flight. Our group had the plane to ourselves. As our descent took us below the clouds we were exposed to the beautiful small town of Churchill, ‘Polar Bear Capital of the World’.

We stepped out of the plane and most of us were startled by the freezing cold and for myself, the word cold has a completely new meaning. Luckily though, the previous night, we were each given a professional expedition jacket which are made by the Canada Goose company which I am told are the ‘Rolls Royce’ of jackets. Being from Australia, I don’t know when I am going to get the chance to use it again soon, but it is great for keeping me warm this week, makes a fantastic souvenir and I am so grateful for it.

We then had a tour of Churchill, which included seeing the ‘Polar Bear Jail’ where problem bears (bears that have come into town and threaten the safety of the locals) are kept and then put back into the wild when the Hudson Bay freezes. The reason the bears come into town in the first place is because Churchill is in the middle of their migration route – as they are fasting during migration (summer), they are hungry and because of this, cause a threat to people. This is why they are kept until the ice freezes again when they will have access to food and don’t need to enter the town.

We toured a community building, which had a library, the school and an ice skating rink. It’s a very nice building and they had a slide in the shape of a giant bear in one of the hallways which most of us were keen to try out. Not too far from the building was the shore of Hudson Bay, which we went to have a look at. The water was extremely cold and I was shocked to find that people go into the water in July, sometimes when there is still ice floating by, for ‘fun’.

After that, we took a quick tour of an abandoned research laboratory where some very interesting tests on polar bears took place in the 1960s. The tests consisted of three polar bears being lead through oil and after this, they licked the oil and in the end, all of them died. The tests, although horrible for the bears, it actually helped the polar bears in general because now, there is evidence that oil harms the bears and this evidence can now be used to limit the transport of oil in the region.

We then got onto a Tundra Buggy and were driven to The Tundra Buggy Lodge. Everybody gets their own little bed area, which has a mattress, pillow, shelf, light, mirror, storing hammock and window; they are quite cosy. The mattresses are nice and soft too so I am looking forward to a decent night’s sleep after being jetlagged for the past 2 nights. We all hoped to see a polar bear today but we were out of luck, however we have seen some nice birds and Canadian huskies (a dog breed).

So far everybody seems to be getting along and there really are some fantastic people here. Its great to meet people from different countries and learn all about the kind of place they live in. It seems that people are amused by the idea of Vegemite and how, to me, it goes with almost everything (but not chocolate, which I found out yesterday) and its great fun trying to imitate each other’s accents. But, I am so glad to be spending my week with such fun and interesting people.